It always takes longer than you think it will

Everything that is worth doing takes time, whether it’s making a website or pursuing a hobby long enough for it to be useful to other people and challenging to yourself.

Persistence

The lesson of persistence I have learnt well through calligraphy. When my friends were idling away their spare evenings and summer vacations playing hop-scotch, I was continuing to scribble on sheets of paper with a pen. The scratch and swirl of the nib across my practice sheets were all the youthful gymnastics I needed.

When it came to building my website, however, all my reserves of persistence fell short. Maybe it was because I couldn’t take a pen to my computer screen and create a page in quite that same familiar way. My pleasure at feeling my way over the messy, scribbled-over pages was lost in the matrix of code and hypertext. (The text was less hyper than me.)

Even deciding the subject of this very first article on my very first blog, took more agonizing days than coming up with the grandiose LinkedIn profile that is my About page. We’ve all been there!

Slowing Down

While I fixate on the time it’s taken to get here, I remind myself that the objective of this website and my pursuit of calligraphy is actually to slow down and re-engage with activities that are more time-consuming and labour-intensive! Ironical?

If I was into quick results I would’ve been pumping videos and posts on every social media network that claims to build communities (As long as you opt for their business promotion packages). I am here to reconstruct the idea of leisure and go back to simpler activities that bring repose and pleasure. For me it’s calligraphy, for you it could be gardening, crotchet or pottery!

I imagine sitting across a community table filled with convivial and kind creators sharing their work and thought process and inspiring each other. When it’s my turn I unravel a crisp, new dotted notebook, my trusty ten-year old fountain pen and a pot of black ink, hoping to share with you what I’ve learnt and love about calligraphy.